Photo by Richard Maack A metal culvert converted into a water-harvesting cistern collects water that initially runs off the roof and into a rain gutter. Potable (safe to drink) backwash water from the home’s indoor water-purification system also is directed into the receptacle. Lilac vine (Hardenbergia) is supported by a metal grid wrapped around the barrel.

Tile artist Joan Baron has lived in her Scottsdale neighborhood since 1980. When another house on her street went on the market two years ago, she decided to buy and renovate it as a rental home with features “I’d enjoy living with,” she says. “I challenged my-self to create a totally edible landscape that would be desert-friendly and sustainable,” she adds. “I approached this redesign much as I would a public art installation, integrating a respect for the land with an awareness of its many functions.”

To help realize her artistic vision, which she calls the Edible Landscape Project, Baron enlisted permaculture designers and teachers Don Titmus and Jay Johnson. “Permaculture is a design process that strives to link all elements, such as the environment, landscape and home, into an interconnected whole,” tutors Titmus. As an example, he explains that Baron’s design includes a cistern that collects fresh rainwater, which helps nourish a nearby raised spiral vegetable garden. The attractive spiral is located just 10 feet from the front door. While the plants’ beauty can be enjoyed daily, the proximity of the garden to the home provides easy access for maintenance and harvesting.

Baron credits both Titmus and Johnson with explaining the importance of choosing appropriate plants and siting them according to the property’s sun exposure. The front yard’s original landscape had several concrete elements that made the space unusable and unbearably hot on summer afternoons. “Concrete expanses absorbed heat, creating a heat-island effect, and plants weren’t properly placed to offer shade,” she notes.

Photo by Richard Maack Joan Baron poses in her garden.

Working off of Titmus’ design, Eric Mytko of Life’s A Garden handled the renovation. In the front yard, he removed the neglected lawn, concrete and an allergen-producing olive tree. Baron explains: “I chose to replace the heat-retaining concrete driveway and sidewalk with decomposed granite in a cinnamon blend that lends a natural transition to other areas of the landscape.” Unlike concrete, decomposed granite is a permeable surface that allows rain to easily soak into the ground. Concrete chunks were recycled to form benches and a spiral garden.

The backyard offered limited space for entertaining. Thus, an area in the front yard was converted to serve that purpose. “When [people] create landscapes, [they] tend to put all their energy into the backyard,” observes Baron. “The land in front is a lost opportunity.” Mytko planted a “living” ocotillo wall, which defines the newly designed gathering space. Individual ocotillo limbs, in time, will develop roots and sprout leaves and flowers. “The ocotillo wall creates a natural privacy screen while still allowing airflow, a sculptural porosity,” Baron says.

RAINWATER HARVESTING
“Rain is such a valuable commodity in the desert,” states the homeowner. “It just made sense to me that we should collect it to use during our dry spells.” To capture and store rain off the roof of the house, she installed a 400-gallon cistern made from an 8-foot-long section of metal culvert set upright. “I had a stainless steel rain gutter fabricated for the front to add a more Modernist look,” she explains.
 
Using the roof as a pathway to guide the rain was easy, according to Baron. “We didn’t have to build anything new. The roof was already there as a natural piece of the solution. All that was required was a rain gutter to guide the water to a collection basin.”

Baron chose to situate the cistern in the front yard, visible from the street, to use as a demonstration for those interested in this eco-friendly idea. “As I learned about different techniques to harvest rainwater, many of which have been used for hundreds of years in various forms, it amazed me that our society isn’t encouraging this as a standard part of new construction,” she comments. “Using rainwater to feed our gardens doesn’t require a lot of financial investment.”